Great Waters House Ale

Brewed by Great Waters Brewing
Style: English Pale Ale
St. Paul, Minnesota USA

I liked this. Dark coppercolor. Lacing white head. Light hop and malt aroma. Very smooth on the palate. Flavor has more hops, light malt, and surprisingly strawberry. \

Cask Tap from December 2005. A mild warming simple English pale ale with bitter malts and light toffee. Rating from notes.

Cask pour of a basic browned orange color. Off-putting aromas of carmalized, burnt sugar, bubble gum and pungent onion sweat. Tastes biscuity, with some honey, and distantly hoppy with a kind of sour finish. English to the core. Though it fares well on the cask, its qualities are faint, and even quiet whispers of foulness are enough to suffocate them.

Called "Fire House Ale" on the chalkboard when I visited today. I assume these are the same. Bronze amber color, nice creamy head. Scant aroma. Smooth throughout, ultra-creamy, rife with flavors of green apple and malt. Faintly hoppy. A touch of sweetness. Medium bodied, light finish. Supreme drinkability. A fine bitter from the cask.

A fairly good cask brew. I havent had many in my day, but I could learn to enjoy them. The serving temp was a little tricky to get used to, but it grows on ya. I agree that is does somewhat taste like tea, but not overally much. Not super bitter, which made me quite a fan!

On-cask at the brewpub: Hazyish copper tinted hay color with a puffy topping of oatmeal cream. Keeps its cap for a great length and laces well across the glass in small curtains and spots. Aroma is soft and sweetly grainy. Honey toasted wheat and a touch of maple also make the smell a bit more interesting. Taste is mild and sweet with a cereal-like grainyness, soft, chewy, bready, lightly toasted with a smidgeon of toffee and maple. A very brief grassy hop with a drying edge rounds off the mostly sweet-sided realm of its honeyish/melon/applesauce sweetness. Feel is quite shy of medium, fairly soft, somewhat chewy, light creamy carbonation and a bit of grainyness. It seems to ensue into more of the sweet tones then I’d like. Quite the easy drinker though. A mild bitter to say the least but surely quaffable.

Hoppy, tastes like tea, they’ve nailed the English sense of flavor--bang on. If this were served in an English pub you wouldn’t question its English provenance, though it would be on the hoppier side of the English range. Very smooth from the cask. Gentle bitter finish. Orange/amber with a cottage cheese head. Extremely drinkable with some interest for Americans. (handpull at brewpub)

CASK: Copper Coloring with Light Tan Sandy Head. Sweet, Thick and a Bit Dry Malt/Caramel Aroma. Malty Dry Taste. Didn’t Detect Much on the Hop End of Things. Not Bursting with Flavor but Certainly a Nice House Session Ale.